Isa, Xavi, Peter, and Finn know that a job at the high-end Waterside Cafe isn't just about waiting tables. It's about the gossip, the hook-ups, the after-hours parties and, most of all, it's about Tips.

Tips--the high-stakes game based on dares. Whoever completes the most dares wins the collected money. A sum that could change a wasted summer into a Summer to Remember.

Isa is the new girl with an embarrassing secret, and as long as she stays on top of her game, she sees no reason why anyone could ever find out.

Xavi will do anything for the money...absolutely anything.

Peter, Xavi's stepbrother, has been in love with her for years, and he thinks the game is the perfect time to confess his feelings.

Finn is in the game just for the thrill. He has enough tips coming in to keep him happy...even if those tips come with some conditions.

From seduction to stealing to threats, the dares are a complete free-for-all, and only the best can win.

The sophisticated Waterside Cafe is anything but classy behind the scenes...and things are about to get dirty.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Genesis:

After Hours was a quick and fun read that I really enjoyed. It wasn’t the best things I have read but I really liked it and I loved the concept of it. After Hours is about some teenagers that work at a cafe and late at night, at 3:00 AM, they play Tips, a game where they have to put a certain percent of their tips/check for a dare. If they accept and fulfill it, they get the whole money. This game had me thinking the dares would be amazing! View Spoiler »The first dare was to kiss someone you didn’t like…… That is so middle grade and hell, probably elementary. I mean, it involved making out but I find the idea of it childish… That’s just me. « Hide Spoiler Some were fun to read about for sure, especially the one that Finn did. I was smiling so big when I read that dare. The rest were okay. I think the story could have been a whole lot better if the game had been more fun.

This is a story that has multiple points of views but it is not overwhelming. I loved reading about each character and their hidden lives that they don’t share about with their coworkers. It gets to a point where the story becomes suspenseful and I really wanted to keep on reading and then all of a sudden…it stops…it just ends. It left me hanging because I don’t know if something was supposed to happen, if a second book is going to come out, if it really is the end… I don’t know.

The characters: The story didn’t wow nor the characters. Yes, their life and secrets were interesting to read about for sure but it didn’t fully have an element of surprise. I kept waiting for something big to happen. There’s Isa, the girl that has a secret that no one knows about until Finn finds out and uses it to blackmail her. Finn had his motives for using blackmail against her seeing as she blackmailed him first, threatening to expose his secret if she didn’t get some money out of it. I really liked Isa in the beginning and then I just despised her a lot. Finn was the one that I loved. He was funny and kind of crazy. There’s Peter who has been “in love” with his stepsister for a long time and Xavi who believes that falling for her stepbrother is beyond wrong. These two, I was waiting for something to happen and when it did… It was the usual cliche story that happens with these and I kept rolling my eyes. There are two other characters that pretty much were used to fill in since they didn’t give much to the story. Then there’s Rico, the guy who owns the cafe. From the beginning I didn’t like him. There was something off about him and later on we find out why something feels different with this character. You guys know I love when I can relate to a character. With this story, it was rather difficult to do so. I really tried but couldn’t feel a connection to the characters at all. I only liked Finn because he was funny for the most part.

Overall, each character was unique, each one with their own secret that slowly came to light and it is not pretty for them, but very interesting. I do recommend this book if you are looking for a quick, light-suspenseful story about teenagers with secrets and having a game of light dares.

Gabriela:

After Hours a book that I would describe as enjoyable but not really a spectacular book. When I read the premise of the book I was so intrigued and I had really high expectations so let me start by saying why? The concept of this book and the idea behind it was really good. The book centers around a group of teenagers that work at this fancy restaurant and late at night they play a game called Tips where they put a percent of their tips/earnings to participate, then a dare is chosen and a person to complete such dare and in order to win tons of money they had to complete the dare. This was played by the workers of a restaurant called Waterside Café and they are not only young but full of mysterious and dark secrets. Sound Interesting? Right? I thought so and as I read the book I enjoyed it but with such a cool idea like this one I thought I was going to be blown away. The book had some really good parts that I really really liked and I couldn’t stop laughing or just reading but overall I wasn’t blown away by the book.

The story is told from multiple point of views each one following the same timeline and the same storyline. What I mean by this is that the story had a nice pace to it where you followed the same situation just from a different point of view. I don’t necessarily like that but with this book it didn’t bother me and at times I found myself enjoying it. The multiple point of views also worked for me because each character is different and they all have their peculiarities and each one was hiding a dark secret so it was fun to get to see both sides of the story. We see the way the other characters find out and how they react to the secret and we also get to see the characters own thoughts and feelings towards the big secret they are hiding.

Now if I had to pinpoint the reason why this book didn’t wow me like I hope it would, I would say 2 main reasons: 1. The Dares and 2. The characters.

The Dares– I thought the concept of the dares could have been done a little better. Like Gen said that first dare was just really childish and I was expecting a lot more from it. The other dares were a lot better and some I really enjoyed reading. And even after considering how much I enjoyed some dares I still think better ones could have been created.

The Characters: Okay, I’m gonna be really honest here, I did not like the characters. I’m going to try and explain this as simple as I can and I hope it makes sense. I liked that the characters were really different from each other. This to me is really important because I hate when they all feel like the same person specially if the story is told from different points of views. Also I like that we have a variety of characters from which you can chose who you like and who you don’t. But I hated the characters personality and way of handling things. I personally felt like they got frustrating at times which I didn’t enjoy. We have Isa who at first I really liked and then she turned into the one character I truly hated from this book. And she has this really deep and embarrassing secret that I just found ridiculous, I’m not gonna spoil you but to me it felt like it wasn’t a big deal. Then we have Peter and Xavi…. yeah.. Im not talking about these two. The only thing I will say is that these two together were a roller coaster and not one I enjoyed. We also have Rico and there is only one word I can use to describe him CREEP. And last but not least Finn, he is the one character I actually enjoyed but I was so frustrated with him but it’s part of it, I guess. The main thing I disliked about him was the fact that he was portrayed as a dumb character and by trying to make him look dumb I think it went a little overboard.

Overall the book was enjoyable and a fun read. I had trouble connecting with the characters of the story and that was the major problem for me with this book but if this book sounds like anything you like or something you want to pick up, give it a try, chances are you may enjoy it more than I did.

Genesis is a 22-year-old girl who lives in Puerto Rico, an island in the Caribbean. She's obsessed with Instagram (@lattenightsbooks) and coffee shops. When she's not reading or on social media, she can be found eating, at the beach, being with her boyfriend and/or hanging out with friends.

Great review — my review of this one will go up tomorrow and I really did not care for it. The characters were definitely unlikable but also seemed so unrealistic — the sexual acts, the obscene amount of money — these just didn’t seem like 16 and 17 year olds.